


Quick Wit and Quick Hands

by Jackisnotabottom



Category: All Time Low, Bandoms, My Chemical Romance, Pierce the Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: ASL teacher Tyler, American Sign Language, Art teacher Josh, Bottom Tyler, Deaf, Interpreter Debby, M/M, Multi, Teacher AU, deaf tyler joseph
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 12:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7714732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackisnotabottom/pseuds/Jackisnotabottom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>New art teacher Josh Dun, arrives to take the place of the recently fired, Rian Dawson. Josh quickly finds himself infatuated with the Asl teacher, Tyler Joseph. Tyler doesnt let his deafness stop him, so why should Josh let it get in the way of their relationship.</p><p> </p><p>Extremely slow updates, not sure if will be continued.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. L-a-c-t-o-s-e I-n-t-o-l-e-r-a-n-t

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't originally going to be a multi chapter story but I knew that if I didnt make it one I wasnt going to finish it.  
> I am fluent in American Sign Language but what I know of the deaf culture all comes from my deaf teacher in Freshman Year.  
> If I say something wrong about the culture, please correct me I would love to learn more.

"And finally the key to art room, any questions?"  
"Yes... where is the art room again?"  
Two men stood in front of the office, one in a sharp, blue suit and the other in paint stained jeans with bright red hair. "Frank! Can you show Mr. Dun where the art room is?"  
Frank runs up, pushing the layer of fringe out of his eyes. "Yeah, I think I have time before English." Josh gawkishly follows behind the short boy, his satchel practically falling off his shoulder. "So you're the new art teacher?" Frank questions.  
Josh nods slightly and watches as Frank turns to a tall teacher, his hands move quickly with a teasing look on his face. The man blushes and turns away, quickly flicking his hand under his chin. Frank lets out a breathy laugh.  
"Who was that?" Josh's head tilts his head and turns his attention to Frank, both of them stopping in front of the art room.  
"It was just the sign language teacher," Frank grins "I gotta go, nice meeting you Mr. Dun!"  
When Josh finally enters the art room, he is met by around thirty eyes all boring into him. "Hello, my name is Joshua Dun and I care what you think. This class is about you, not me, not the school, not your grades, you. Here we will worry about expressing yourself, because that's what art is." Josh coughs and looks up, no ones expression has changed.  
A tall boy with large lips stands up, the boy sitting beside him tugs at his shirt with a warning look. The taller one smacks his hand and continues on "How do we get grades then?"  
Josh smiles and does a quick twirl, he picks up a paint brush and makes his way over to the boy. "Drive. Passion. How proud you are. A lot of things play into it." He sets the brush down onto his desk. "First project, pick any supply and draw. Simple as that. You have three days!" Josh grins and walks back to his desk. He lays out a sheet, drawing various squiggles in charcoal. Josh gets lost in the drawing, nearly jumping when the small egg timer goes off. "That should be enough for today, I don’t expect any of you to bring your work home today but tomorrow is a different story." The bell rings a moment later, the kids swiftly picking up their bags and heading off to whatever they had next.  
He takes a step out of the door and waits for his next class, while there he sees a small group of teachers chatting, they quickly invite him in. "You're Josh right?" Josh nods his head, watching the group laugh again as more is said. He notices a young woman making the quick gestures Frank had made earlier toward the same teacher. The man's eyes twinkle as he lets out a quite loud laugh, an obvious odd sounding tone to it. Josh assumes the man is deaf, he smiles towards him. "I'm Vic, this is Jack, Debby, Kellin, Alex, and Tyler."  
Tyler was a pretty man, Josh really couldn’t find another way to put it. He had an inviting smile and gorgeous brown eyes. "Tyler says it's really nice to meet you but he really needs to go." Debby says, Josh watching how pretty Tyler's hands look when they slide across each other and meet once again.  
"It was nice to meet you too. See you later." Josh pulls in his bottom lip. Debby, Vic, and Tyler retreat, leaving Jack, Alex, Kellin, and him alone. "Do you guys know sign language too?"  
"We all know little bits, Tyler had to teach us small amounts seeing as some kids were cheating on tests with it. Don't feel too bad about not knowing it, he almost always has an interpreter with him and reads lips quite well." Josh smiles at this piece of information, nodding at all the teachers.  
~~~  
Josh can hear and see the door open from the corner of his eye but is too invested in his work to pay them mind. "I'll be a bit! If you need something, just check the board." Josh continues on, small lines being made on his paper, the marks slowly becoming a piece of art.  
A hand comes on to Josh's chin and guides his head up. Tyler is in front of him, a confused look on his face. "Repeat that?" Tyler's voice is harsh at the edges and sounds very cloudy.  
"I thought you were a student." Josh's voice is quick, he's incredibly embarrassed.  
"Slow?" Tyler's left hand sits on top of his right and it drags back. Josh assumes this is the sign for slow and repeats the gesture with his own hands. Tyler nods his head in approval.  
"I thought you were a student" Josh said in a slow drawl, Tyler looked confused but nodded, his left hand making a platform and right pretending as though it was picking something up, finally his hands formed what Josh recognized as a p and went down.  
"Student, you thought I was a student?" Josh nods and copies the sign, proud that he was already able to recognize two signs. "Name?" Josh's signs are shaky but he's able to get out the letters for Josh Dun. Tyler's smile afterwards makes it all worth it, "Josh! Hi!"  
"The bell is going to ring soon, want to chat over coffee?" Tyler looked blankly at Josh and nodded, his right hand making a fist and shook like a head.  
Josh waves as Tyler leaves, a grin taking over his face.  
The rest of the classes went uneventful, Josh's excitement growing. It had been so long since he had found a guy he was interested in, this was a new start. Josh googled a few common signs in preparation, though it was much harder to learn without the signs being in front of him.  
Josh left the classroom in a rush, leaving the door open for the janitor to clean up. Josh waited by the front of the school for Tyler, seeing the man moving quickly, stopping to sign to kids. Tyler waved hi and Josh slowly, and shakily fingerspells 'have car?' Tyler nods, a huge grin taking over his face. He makes a fist with his pointer finger up and shakes it. Josh is confused. "Where go?" Tyler says loudly. Josh once again attempts to finger spell, this time the name of the café.  
They shake heads and wave, both going to their respective cars, the drive to the café wasn’t long and Josh's jitters just kept getting worse. What if it gets awkward because they couldn't communicate that well? Josh didn't have a lot of time to dwell over it because he had already arrived at the café. He pulled his wallet out of the middle console, and tried to fix his messy red hair. Noticing the charcoal on his face, he quickly tries to smudge it off, mortified that Tyler had seen him like that. Josh exited the car, and walked up to the cashier, ordering a latte and a slice of cheesecake.  
Tyler walks in a little bit later, he copies Josh's earlier actions, coming back with black coffee and a small cookie instead. "Ready?" Tyler makes two rs and shakes them, Josh is confused but nods. Tyler proceeds to point at himself then very very very slowly fingerspells l-a-c-t-o-s-e I-n-t-o-l-e-r-a-n-t. Josh stares blankly, "lactose intolerant", Josh smiles. He was glad to be finding out all these little details about the guy. "You not?" Tyler points to Josh and then hooks his thumb under his chin. Josh shakes his head. Tyler reaches over and helps Josh form no with his hand. "How about I sign and talk?" Josh copies the yes sign.  
"So, how long have you been deaf?" Tyler gives Josh a look.  
"How long have you been hearing?"  
"Touche" Josh smiles, already infatuated with this boy, the conversation progresses through everything, school, family, Josh's art, Tyler's job, Josh's hair. Josh has to say this has been the best date, (could you call it a date?), that he has ever been on. Finally he forms the sign hes been wanting to ask, a single g tapped on his chin with a questioning face. 'Gay?'  
Tylelr smiles and signs 'no, b-I', Josh is excited, there could be a chance for the two of them.


	2. I was gonna ask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shortish chapter, kind of a filler I guess. Remember that ASL is hard to learn, Josh can't become fluent overnight. I'm on my 3rd year of learning it and I still don't know a lot of signs or dialect.

The last three days have been uneventful for Josh, the very few interactions between Josh and Tyler left him wanting to see Tyler more. Tyler made Josh feel excited to show up to his job, the beautiful boy teaching him new signs anytime they talked, Josh wished he could remember them all though. Tyler told him it took some people years before they reached fluidity, though Josh's constant interactions with Tyler may speed up the process. At this point they still heavily relied on Tyler's ability to speak and read lips. Josh knew it was tiring for Tyler though and was trying his hardest to learn as fast as he could, though his memory was not as good as it used to be.  
They had agreed to meet up again today at the same coffee shop, Tyler made him feel like a young teen with how giddy he got over the idea of seeing him. Josh had gotten up this morning with a smile on his face, they had agreed to meet at twelve, Josh had gotten up at six so he had plenty of time. He had spent the first two hours getting dressed and stripping the red from his hair. 'Hey Ty, what color should I do?', Josh sent the text and continued on with his morning routine.  
At around nine he started on the large pile of artist's statements he had to check, only achieving around half of it before his phone rang, an hour and thirty minutes after he sent the text.  
'purple'  
Josh smiled and headed to the gym, took a quick shower, and headed out with his keys, phone, and shake.  
By the time he reached the cafe, his shake was gone so coffee was now an option. He ordered his favorite, and sat down. Soon, there was a flapping hand beside his head. 'Josh', he signed, 'name sign', and then made a 'j' by his hair.  
Josh was ecstatic, 'your', he put his hand out.  
Tyler made a 't' and went in a straight line in front of his mouth. "Because I smile," he spoke aloud. Josh loved Tyler's voice, it was so unique.  
'Whats up,' Josh Flicked the motion  
"Mom has been on my back, I don't wear my hearing aids often and she thinks I need to practice hearing," Tyler looked frustrated.  
Josh stops, trying to think of how he could sign a reply. "I can't think of how to reply in sign, I'm sorry. That must suck," Josh feels bad as he says it, he wants to make Tyler comfortable but ASL is hard.  
"It's fine Josh, the fact that your trying means a lot."  
Josh can't help but smile as their conversations progress.  
"Hey, I was wondering if maybe you would like to go on a date next weekend," Tyler asks shyly.  
"I was supposed to ask that, you took it from me," Josh acts sad  
"Fine fine fine, you can ask me," Tyler laughs  
"I would like to know if you want to go on a date with me next weekend,"  
"I would love to!"


	3. Mom and Debby, please, for the love of God, Stop.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhhhh  
> I haven't updated in forever   
> Btw Tyler only has one brother named Andrew here.  
> I'm rushing to get this done before church   
> Filler again sorry   
> There probably wont be anymore story progression until after my play is done aka next month   
> I have to be off book by tomorrow and I am no where even close help
> 
> Also I was thinking of making a youtube channel for ASL covers.   
> I sign songs that are like the closest to ASL as possible without changing the orignal lyrics too much or messing with the tempo.

"Mom. Stop." Tyler was sick of this, he wishes he had never told his mom.   
"Im just excited that youre growing up baby. I had always dreamed you'd meet someone. I never thought they would go through all this boy is going through for you." His mom is practically jumping, shes so excited.   
"Its just a boy, anyway, I told you I wouldnt need my hearing aids to get myself a s.o" Tyler had always fought his mom about the hearing aids. He was much more comfortable with sign. It made him feel normal in a way, he didn't want to be like the hearing.   
"If it worked for Andrew, it will work for you." Andrew was his big shot brother, four years older than Tyler and an anazing lawyer. His mom wanted what was best for the both of them, she never had much experience in the deaf community because no one else in the family was deaf. It was hard on everyone, but his parents were trying.   
"I don't want to be like Andrew. Im Tyler, we are different. Stop." The moment Tyler finished that sentence, Debby burst in.   
"I can't believe it Tyguy, you got yourself a boyfriend!"  
"He's not my boyfriend Debby." Tyler looks up with a half smile "not yet at least"  
Debby and his mom preceed to huddle around him, pokeing his cheeks and jabbering about how excited they are in baby voices.  
"Mom and Debby, please for the love of God, stop."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ill try to write bits of it at school. Im kinda drowning in stuff right now though.


	4. I'm back, kinda?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okayokayokay so this isn't an update, but it's good news. I've actually been working on one, I don't know when I'll have it finished, but I'm working on it. That's a start right? Hopefully I'll see you guys soon, I uploaded a cover of Vanilla Twilight on YouTube like 6 months ago, since a few of you were interested heres the link,  
https://youtu.be/YWlNM7G592g


End file.
